September 25, 2024 • 24 mins
The Jan Price Show All About Movies is moving to a brand-new time slot on Saturdays at 10:30 AM! In September, we will also continue to air at 1:05 PM. Starting in October, The Jan Price Show All About Movies will air at 10:30 AM, and there will be an encore show at 9 PM on Saturday evening!
Costume Designer Whitney Anne Adams discusses her new film, "The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat," available on Hulu.
THE SUPREMES AT EARL’S ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT follows lifelong best friends Odette (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), Barbara Jean (Sanaa Lathan), and Clarice (Uzo Aduba) known as “The Supremes”, who share the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood from decades of weathering life’s storms. Through the joys and sorrows of life, marriage, and children, happiness and blues, love and loss, new shades of heartbreak and illness threaten to stir up the past when the trio sees their bond put to the test as they face their most challenging times yet.
Costume Designer Whitney Anne Adams discusses her new film, "The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat," available on Hulu.
THE SUPREMES AT EARL’S ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT follows lifelong best friends Odette (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), Barbara Jean (Sanaa Lathan), and Clarice (Uzo Aduba) known as “The Supremes”, who share the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood from decades of weathering life’s storms. Through the joys and sorrows of life, marriage, and children, happiness and blues, love and loss, new shades of heartbreak and illness threaten to stir up the past when the trio sees their bond put to the test as they face their most challenging times yet.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The jam Bright Show, All about Movies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're listening to The jam For Show All about Movies,
and today my guest is a costume designer, Whitney Anne Adams,
and we're gonna we've got a few little technical problems here,
so everybody, we're just gonna say that right up front
that we have had a few issues.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hopefully we started so anyhow, and thank.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You Whitney so for being so patient with us getting
this done. But you've had such an illustrious career, an
amazing and you're so young. I'm like in shock of
all the things that you've done at such a young age.
But one of the things we're going to talk about
today is The Supreme The Supremes at Earls All You
(00:46):
Can Eat, which is a wonderful, wonderful film. You know,
I cried, I cried at it, I laughed, and it's
just a great, great movie. And the costumes, oh my gosh,
they are amazing, amazing. So let's talk a little bit
about you. You've worked with a lot of different directors.
We're going to dive into your career, but let's talk
(01:09):
a little bit about The Supremes at Earls All You
Can Eat, which is streaming right now on Hulu for
all of you who want to see it. So let's
talk about the costumes, because you had to do different
eras you started in the fifties, sixties, seventies, and you know,
take us through a lot of different errors, and for
each of these wonderful characters, you had a great cast
(01:31):
to work with. So let's talk a bit a bit
about this movie and how you design the costumes for it.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It was quite the undertaking, Like you said, four different
decades to work with, nineteen fifty, nineteen sixty eight, nineteen
seventy seven, and nineteen ninety nine. And I had quite
a giant past as well. And it's the story spans
such a huge period of time, so we need all
the different clothes. We had four different stocks of clothing
for all of our different decades. I was sourcing things
(01:59):
from la from New York, from across the country. I
flew to all these different places to get clothing. So
it was really going everywhere and digging through every single
vintage shop to get enough clothes to fit on everybody.
And we got to make a lot of specialty pieces
for some of our lead actors, which was a lot
of fun as well.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh yeah, you've got Angela Ellis, who I just think
is so wonderful. I got to interview her a couple
of years ago, and I just she's just so gracious
and just a wonderful You've just, you know, you've just
got a great cast that you to work with.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So let's talk about each one of them and their characters,
uh in this film, and a little bit of what
the film is about, so people know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So the movie for me, is really about friendship across
the decades and how your friends really stick with you
through thick and thin. And I love getting to dress
both the younger versions of our lead characters and the
adult version. So so many people besides it's our main trio,
have their younger and adult version. So it was a
lot of connecting the through line between all of these
(03:06):
people and taking into account the sixty eight of it
all and the nine of it all, but also making
sure their characters felt the same between the two actors.
So that was a really fun challenge. I had my
nineteen ninety nine leads cast first with Angenoux and Sonata
and Uzo, but we filmed our nineteen sixty eight cast first,
(03:27):
So I fit all of those women first and all
of our young amazing cast first, and I wanted to
make sure that those colors and patterns and ideas that
I had for the younger cast also worked for the
adult cast. It was a lot of sort of moving
backwards and forwards in time constantly to make sure that
(03:47):
I had wiggle room to sort of get the right
looks when I worked with our adult actors. And so
it was just a lot of fittings and a lot
of thinking.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I would say yeah, and thought about the fact that
you had to make sure the colors worked, you know,
as I got older too for them, So yeah, it's
a great I mean the ensemble cast of the young actresses,
uh and the young male leads were also wonderful, and
how they went back and forth between between them.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So absolutely. And I started with the color palette. That
was sort of my main through line is I had
my casting of Angenoo, Uzzo and Sona, and so I
sort of gathered every image of them that existed contemporary,
both them in films, both them as themselves, and figured
out what colors both worked for the characters and looked
(04:39):
great on them. And then I worked backwards and once
I had that color palette for each one of the
adult versions, I then used that color palette for our
younger actors, found which of those colors worked well on
their skin as well, and then went about finding the
right correct pieces, and then we built some things like
Keana Simone, who plays young Odette. We built her fiery
(05:01):
orange dress in house, and it was fun to source
that fabric. And you know, she's the fiery, outspoken but
also grounded, foundational friend of the trio. So all of
her you know, color palette was earth tones and that grounded,
solid foundation.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Very interesting. You know, you don't even think about that
when you're watching a movie, you know, how the colors
can evoke the mood of what we're watching in that
character's soul. I want to read something to you. I'm
I'm reading George Oscar winning actor George Shakiras's autobiography and
(05:40):
when I was reading at the end of the day,
I came across a quote that he talks about. I read,
you know Oscar winning costume designer or Irene Sheriff, and
in it he wrote, Irene Sheriff, one of the great
costume designers of all time designed for the character. She
connected with their souls and express them through her mastery.
(06:04):
No wonder she remains one of the most important designers
in the history of stage and screen.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I love that quote so much. She what a legend.
Her career is so incredible and impressive. I have all
of her biographies on my bookshelf. She's such such an
amazing designer to look up to.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
She really is. And so I loved when he said
she connected to the soul. So you're saying the same thing.
You know that you were, you know the character. You
know she was more earth and the earth bound, and
so you know, the colors had to denote, you know,
more of the earthy tones, and that's connecting with the soul.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So absolutely we have to be not just a visual designer,
but a psychologist, a therapist. We're not only working with
the characters brains and who they are and how they
think about their clothes. We're also working with our actors
and their selves that they bring to the care character
and their bodies, and so there's a lot of meeting
(07:03):
of all these different things together. So it's very sort
of logistic and thought forward. You really have to figure
out who these people are and why they wear what
they do. It can't just be a pretty picture, of course,
who want things to look good. But that's just the
little tip of the iceberg. Really, the main bulk of
the work is doing all of that research and thought process.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Amazing, how long does it take you or on this
particular picture, because there were so many costumes in it,
How long did you work beforehand before you started creating
the costumes for the film.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
It was quick. I only had eight weeks to get
things together before we started filming. And then as we
were filming, we filmed the younger cast first, and then
I'm then prepping our adult actors costumes, and I'm doing,
you know, three hour fittings with all of my leads
while we're also filming the younger scenes the nineteen sixty eight.
(08:01):
So I'm sort of bouncing back and forth between running
to set to establish more costumes on the day, than
running back to the office to have all these marathon fittings,
then running out the mall or shopping online. And it's
a lot of I usually walk around twenty four thousand
steps each day that I'm on a movie.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I was a Sam surprised you still have hair.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I know, ripping it out. Seriously, it's a lot to
keep track of. You have to shove all of that
in your brain and keep it present and always on
the timeline of what needs to happen first.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Wow, wow, Wow, it's amazing. It's amazing. So we talked
about Irene Sheriff, and so obviously she's an inspiration. You
said you had so many of her you have all
of her books. So who else has inspired you and
how did you get into this industry?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
For me, my first inspiration was Tony Walton, who designed
Mary Poppins. And I watched Mary Poppins every day when
I was learning to talk, so I had a tear
rible British accent for the first year of my life,
like Dick vand style, and so I just remember loving
Mary Poppins and she was you know, I was too
young at the time to understand that it was so
much to do with that costume design. And then I
(09:13):
got to work for Tony for about half a year.
I helped archive his life's work, and just getting to
sit with him and hear all of his stories and
hear his stories from Mary Poppins was kind of one
of the greatest times of my life, and so he
was a huge inspiration to me and continues to be
to this day.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Wow, you got to meet your idol? Is it that amazing?
How did that come about?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
It was I got connected through my alumni of my college,
through Judith Dolan, who was my professor at UC San Diego,
and some of my fellow alumni connected me with Tony.
And my first Halloween costume that my mom made for
me was Mary Poppins when I was three, So I
got to, you know, at the end of my time
with him, I got to print out the picture of
(09:55):
my homemade Mary Poppins outfit and give it to him
as a and he he was the best. And so
I was so fortunate to get connected to him through them.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
That's amazing. How amazing did you? I mean, was this
something that you had ever dreamed might ever happen in
your life?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Absolutely not. I couldn't believe it. And then a couple
of years later, Tony was directing some shows in the
Hamptons and so he asked me to be his costume designer.
So I got to design costumes for Tony and Julie Andrews,
his ex wife and best friend came to see our
show and said, I did a wonderful job, and I thought, well,
I can die now.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
How wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, what a charmed life. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Absolutely again, you're so young and it's just all a
young time and.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
It feels so fortunate.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, you haven't, but you also have worked with the
amazing Catherine Martin and Baz Luhmann and on The Great Gatsby,
which I love all.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That's my era.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Era for sure, and I you know, relate to everything
The Great gats Mey's my favorite favorite novel of all
time too, and so talk about that experience.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It was incredible and to have that be my first movie.
I still can't believe it all happened. I pinched myself.
I mean, it was an incredible experience. And then getting
to work for Catherine and Baz for many, many years.
I learned so much from them and I love them
so much. They're like family. And you know, I worked
really hard and I got connected to them through a
(11:32):
costume design contest that I ended up winning and I
won a trip to Australia, and long story short, got
to the chance to work for them for three weeks,
which turned into many, many years and the Great gats By.
So getting to be on set and that being on
set filming that first party scene was the moment I
knew I wanted to be a film costume designer for
the rest of my life. Just seeing all of those
(11:55):
clothes that we've been working on for months and months
dancing together, I was like crying behind my three D
glasses at Video Village. It was a very well like job.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Well, and she is, She's amazing. Katherine Martin is also
truly amazing. Well, let's talk about your design process then,
because you've also you've worked with Liza Minnelli and you
did Beyonce's costumes for the I Am Tour. Let's talk
about Beyonce and Liza Annelly.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I know, right, My very first job in New York
when I moved to New York after college, was at
a Broadway costume shop called Corelli's, which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore.
But I worked there full time for three years as
a tailor and as a first hand, you know, cutting
out all of the different pieces so we could make
all of these beautiful outfits. So Liza used our shop
(12:43):
as so we were her tailors and my favorite thing
we got to make for her is this Snickers commercial
I think from twenty eleven or twenty ten, and she
is like a diva commercial, like you turn into a
diva if you don't have if you're hungry, and she's
where this like sparkly sequined turquoise pants suit that I
(13:04):
helped make and that was really really really fun and that, yeah,
that was us. I I got to make that. And
then we got to make all of Beyonce's costumes for
her I Am Sasha Feirs tour and it was so cool.
A lot of them the tour was designed by Terry
mcglair and getting to alter a lot of his originals
(13:27):
for Beyonce that was what my team was tasked with.
So that was really fun to make them perfect for her.
And love was a lot of hand beating. I got
really good about hand beating and hand sequick sequening.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
What was it like working with her?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I unfortunately never got to meet her. She had a
fit model, so we fit everything because she was so
busy rehearsing her tour. I just felt proud that I
get to be I got to be a part of
that and got to have my hands on a huge
chunk of the clothes that she wore that whole tour.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, you've you've been really busy because you've got a
lot of films that you've been working on, and right
now you're working on something. Let's talk a little, Yeah,
So let's talk about what you've seem to work. And
I've noticed when I was doing my research a lot
with Chris Landon.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I love Chris chrislann It's amazing. We've done four moves together,
three that he directed and four that he wrote, and
it was just he's the best. I love Chris so much,
and he's so much fun to work for. And I
love horror. I'm a big horror person, and so we've
done some really fun horror comedies and straight horror together.
It's been a delight, and I hope we get to
(14:35):
work together again soon because he just sets such a fun, amazing,
respectful set.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That's nice because when you see that you're working with
somebody over and over again and you find that that
makes it. You know, there's a different way of communicating
with one another when you work together so much as
a shorthand in exact way you.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Can jump right into it and you don't have You're like,
we have the same aesthetic, we care about the same things.
We you know, he can give me a task and
I can go off and do it and bring it
back and we're always on the same page, which I love.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So let's talk about that. What is it like designing
for a horror film converses a narrative? You know, love story.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Let's say, right, well, there's a lot more multiples because
there's usually a lot of like blood and distressing and
dirt and all sorts of things happen in horror movies.
Plus there's a lot of stunts. So my number one
thing is safety, So I always design with safety in mind.
And if we're going to do some stunt where someone
goes through a plate glass window, I want to make
(15:42):
sure that their skin is covered as much as possible.
So if that affects the principal actors costume, that's fine.
I really just need to make sure people are safe.
So it's a lot of thinking about those logistics in
addition to what looks correct for the character. So there's
a lot more stunts and multiples and shopping in places
(16:02):
where you don't get one off. So you can't really
use vintage so much. You got to build things more.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I never thought about you. So you also have to
protect there when they're doing the stunts. You have to
put accustomed together that protects them and never even again
when we're watching these movies. That's why I love what
I do, because it's behind the scenes and we get
to know you take a little bit of a look
and peek inside all the scene the movie magic that
goes on behind the scenes. So that's interesting. I mean,
(16:33):
that wouldn't be something we would all think about exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Like all and depending on how long they wear it
in the movie and how many stages of destruction it
goes through. And also you need to get multiple sizes
because often the stunt actors are wearing harnesses or pads
or different things underneath as well, so you need it
to look correct, but they also have to wear all
this stuff underneath it so their body stays protected. So
really having a lot of multiples but also multiple and different.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Sizes interesting, very interesting, very interesting. So what's your design process?
We started on that I think a little bit. Yeah,
let's take a little deeper dive into what your process is.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
My favorite thing is that. My process is the same
no matter if I'm doing a horror movie or a
period drama. It's reading the script multiple times, taking my
script notes, and then doing research. If I'm doing a
horror movie, maybe I go rewatch some of my favorite
horror movies set in that era, or I go dig
into where the time and place. If I'm doing a
period say you know the Supremes, I dug into the
(17:37):
research going through family photos online. A lot of people
on Flicker have public albums, so I love using people's
because it's real people. I love yearbooks. Yearbooks are such
a great gold mine of photos and contemporary magazines and
also films of the time and just getting research wherever
you can. So no matter what the story is or
(17:58):
if it's contemporary or a period and you still just
have to do your research and gather as many images
and history that you can.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
No, you said you'd like horror films, which is not my.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Genre at all at all.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I don't like being scared. But besides horror films, do
you have a favorite genre that you do like working
on more than others? Perhaps? Or have it or is
it all of them?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I love everything. I think my goal is to do
a different movie in every genre in my career. But
if I have to pick something that is my favorite,
it's a movie musical. I love movie musicals. I'm a
big I moved to New York to do Broadway, to
do theater. I love musicals. So it's definitely a big
goal of mine to do a big period like mid
century movie musical. But I am a student of cinema.
(18:51):
I just love watching movies. I try to watch at
least a movie a day, even if I'm like, you know, working,
I just have it on the background. I just love movies.
Right now the nineties action vibe. At the moment, I'm
watching a lot of nineties action.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's funny how we do that. Yeah, let's start one genre.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You're like, oh, watch all of those movies. Exactly depends
on what mood I'm in or what I'm doing. It's like, oh,
I'm I'm working on this movie that's really heavy, so
I need to go have some fun.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
It sort of bounces out what's happening in my in
my personal life.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well, you all need balance. Yeah, we definitely balance. I
think that's why a lot of us, you know, during
the pandemic and to some of our stressful times that
are going on in our world.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
We want we want something light exactly, We want fun
and lovely.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, we don't want too much drama anymore. And at
the moment it depends though.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It's so, so, what are you working on now, because
it seems you're in a project right at the moment. Correct,
I am.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I'm currently in New Orleans. I can't say anything, unfortunately,
but I can say it is a spooky more on
the spooky side than say The Supreme. So I'm excited
about this one. I'm here through the end of the year,
and this is my third movie in New Orleans, so
I'm excited to be back.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Oh do you like New Orleans then? And you said
there's a hurricane coming there? Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yes, I am sheltering in place from a hurricane fan
scene and headed our way today.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Wow. Wow Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Luck like work remotely at home, so I.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, we definitely have to do that. So be careful,
be safe, be safe, be safe. I'm with you. I
love movie I love Broadway musicals. That's what I wanted
to do when I was a little girl. I wanted
to be, you know, the next Mary Martin or something.
That wouldn't be Peter Pan. But I've never grown up,
so I guess I have fulfilled.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
That wish at some level.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But yeah, I get to go fly.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I just love it so much. I'm a Tony voter
now I'm something that's kind of a dream for me.
So I get to go up to New York and
see every show this season, and I just love it
so much. I think that's another big goal of mine,
is to do a Broadway show at some point in
my life.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
I would love that, Yeah, I do. I love well, Yeah,
I love Broadway musicals myself. Do you have an all
time favorite Broadway musical that if they did a revival
that you would love to do the costumes for. Oh?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Such a good question, and it feels impossible to sort
of choose what a favorite might be. But I think
my favorite Contempt more contemporary musical is next to Normal.
I would love to do that show. It's more of
a smaller scale, so it's not what you think of
like a typical big costume movie, but I think it's
just such a brilliant And there's also this show I
(21:42):
love called fun Home that I'm hoping that they make
a movie of at some point because I love that
Broadway show so much and I think it would be
an amazing movie.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I don't know either one of those.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
They're wonderful, They're really really great.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yes, so you're not looking at any of the old
nineteen forties.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Oh, I love those too. I think Oklahoma is my favorite,
and I love the recent revival that I had a close,
dear friend Will brill in the show, and so it
was fun to see him and one of my favorite musicals.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, those the costumes from that era, from the forties
and the fifties. You Carousel incredible, you know, and of
course West Side Story, which you know I'm interviewing George
Shakiraz next week. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
It's just so brilliant. I recently listened to that whole
album driving back from New York and it's just a
perfect musical. It's just perfect. It's incredible and I can
listen to it and repeat for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
You know, impossible to pick a favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
They're all so good, I know, I know, I know,
it's you know, character driven, it's just the it's and
the costumes in that are Dunning. Yeah, really wonderful in
that film too. Wow, I really well, this is you gave.
It's a nice peak inside of what it's like to
be a costume designer. And now when we watch the movies,
(23:06):
especially if you go, I mean, I hope you all
do search out the Supremes at Earl's all you can
eat because it's a lovely, lovely movie. It's heartwarming and
it's touching and yeah, it's just a wonderful movie. But
the costumes are absolutely amazing in that movie. Thank you
so As I said, it's streaming on Hulu right now,
so you can tune in and see Whitney's costumes design
(23:29):
in that film. So thank you so much, Whitney. I
look forward to having you back on the show. You've
got such a fashion eating career, and I look forward
to talking to you further about other movies and when
you go to Broadway.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Same. Thank you so much for having me. It's such
a delight.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
To all my wonderful loyal listeners. Your love of film
allows me to do what I do. If you want
to support me, the best way to do that is
to hit the subscribe button on the iHeart Podcast Network.
Apple Podcast Google Podcasts, Spotify or whereever you listen to
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(24:06):
If you are feeling really compelled, I want to hear
from you. Have a burning question, comment or review, Drop
me an email at the Jamprice Show dot com. Thank
you for listening The Jamprice
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Show All About Movies.
The jam Bright Show, All about Movies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're listening to The jam For Show All about Movies,
and today my guest is a costume designer, Whitney Anne Adams,
and we're gonna we've got a few little technical problems here,
so everybody, we're just gonna say that right up front
that we have had a few issues.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hopefully we started so anyhow, and thank.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You Whitney so for being so patient with us getting
this done. But you've had such an illustrious career, an
amazing and you're so young. I'm like in shock of
all the things that you've done at such a young age.
But one of the things we're going to talk about
today is The Supreme The Supremes at Earls All You
(00:46):
Can Eat, which is a wonderful, wonderful film. You know,
I cried, I cried at it, I laughed, and it's
just a great, great movie. And the costumes, oh my gosh,
they are amazing, amazing. So let's talk a little bit
about you. You've worked with a lot of different directors.
We're going to dive into your career, but let's talk
(01:09):
a little bit about The Supremes at Earls All You
Can Eat, which is streaming right now on Hulu for
all of you who want to see it. So let's
talk about the costumes, because you had to do different
eras you started in the fifties, sixties, seventies, and you know,
take us through a lot of different errors, and for
each of these wonderful characters, you had a great cast
(01:31):
to work with. So let's talk a bit a bit
about this movie and how you design the costumes for it.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It was quite the undertaking, Like you said, four different
decades to work with, nineteen fifty, nineteen sixty eight, nineteen
seventy seven, and nineteen ninety nine. And I had quite
a giant past as well. And it's the story spans
such a huge period of time, so we need all
the different clothes. We had four different stocks of clothing
for all of our different decades. I was sourcing things
(01:59):
from la from New York, from across the country. I
flew to all these different places to get clothing. So
it was really going everywhere and digging through every single
vintage shop to get enough clothes to fit on everybody.
And we got to make a lot of specialty pieces
for some of our lead actors, which was a lot
of fun as well.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh yeah, you've got Angela Ellis, who I just think
is so wonderful. I got to interview her a couple
of years ago, and I just she's just so gracious
and just a wonderful You've just, you know, you've just
got a great cast that you to work with.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So let's talk about each one of them and their characters,
uh in this film, and a little bit of what
the film is about, so people know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So the movie for me, is really about friendship across
the decades and how your friends really stick with you
through thick and thin. And I love getting to dress
both the younger versions of our lead characters and the
adult version. So so many people besides it's our main trio,
have their younger and adult version. So it was a
lot of connecting the through line between all of these
(03:06):
people and taking into account the sixty eight of it
all and the nine of it all, but also making
sure their characters felt the same between the two actors.
So that was a really fun challenge. I had my
nineteen ninety nine leads cast first with Angenoux and Sonata
and Uzo, but we filmed our nineteen sixty eight cast first,
(03:27):
So I fit all of those women first and all
of our young amazing cast first, and I wanted to
make sure that those colors and patterns and ideas that
I had for the younger cast also worked for the
adult cast. It was a lot of sort of moving
backwards and forwards in time constantly to make sure that
(03:47):
I had wiggle room to sort of get the right
looks when I worked with our adult actors. And so
it was just a lot of fittings and a lot
of thinking.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I would say yeah, and thought about the fact that
you had to make sure the colors worked, you know,
as I got older too for them, So yeah, it's
a great I mean the ensemble cast of the young actresses,
uh and the young male leads were also wonderful, and
how they went back and forth between between them.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So absolutely. And I started with the color palette. That
was sort of my main through line is I had
my casting of Angenoo, Uzzo and Sona, and so I
sort of gathered every image of them that existed contemporary,
both them in films, both them as themselves, and figured
out what colors both worked for the characters and looked
(04:39):
great on them. And then I worked backwards and once
I had that color palette for each one of the
adult versions, I then used that color palette for our
younger actors, found which of those colors worked well on
their skin as well, and then went about finding the
right correct pieces, and then we built some things like
Keana Simone, who plays young Odette. We built her fiery
(05:01):
orange dress in house, and it was fun to source
that fabric. And you know, she's the fiery, outspoken but
also grounded, foundational friend of the trio. So all of
her you know, color palette was earth tones and that grounded,
solid foundation.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Very interesting. You know, you don't even think about that
when you're watching a movie, you know, how the colors
can evoke the mood of what we're watching in that
character's soul. I want to read something to you. I'm
I'm reading George Oscar winning actor George Shakiras's autobiography and
(05:40):
when I was reading at the end of the day,
I came across a quote that he talks about. I read,
you know Oscar winning costume designer or Irene Sheriff, and
in it he wrote, Irene Sheriff, one of the great
costume designers of all time designed for the character. She
connected with their souls and express them through her mastery.
(06:04):
No wonder she remains one of the most important designers
in the history of stage and screen.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I love that quote so much. She what a legend.
Her career is so incredible and impressive. I have all
of her biographies on my bookshelf. She's such such an
amazing designer to look up to.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
She really is. And so I loved when he said
she connected to the soul. So you're saying the same thing.
You know that you were, you know the character. You
know she was more earth and the earth bound, and
so you know, the colors had to denote, you know,
more of the earthy tones, and that's connecting with the soul.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So absolutely we have to be not just a visual designer,
but a psychologist, a therapist. We're not only working with
the characters brains and who they are and how they
think about their clothes. We're also working with our actors
and their selves that they bring to the care character
and their bodies, and so there's a lot of meeting
(07:03):
of all these different things together. So it's very sort
of logistic and thought forward. You really have to figure
out who these people are and why they wear what
they do. It can't just be a pretty picture, of course,
who want things to look good. But that's just the
little tip of the iceberg. Really, the main bulk of
the work is doing all of that research and thought process.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Amazing, how long does it take you or on this
particular picture, because there were so many costumes in it,
How long did you work beforehand before you started creating
the costumes for the film.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
It was quick. I only had eight weeks to get
things together before we started filming. And then as we
were filming, we filmed the younger cast first, and then
I'm then prepping our adult actors costumes, and I'm doing,
you know, three hour fittings with all of my leads
while we're also filming the younger scenes the nineteen sixty eight.
(08:01):
So I'm sort of bouncing back and forth between running
to set to establish more costumes on the day, than
running back to the office to have all these marathon fittings,
then running out the mall or shopping online. And it's
a lot of I usually walk around twenty four thousand
steps each day that I'm on a movie.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I was a Sam surprised you still have hair.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I know, ripping it out. Seriously, it's a lot to
keep track of. You have to shove all of that
in your brain and keep it present and always on
the timeline of what needs to happen first.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Wow, wow, Wow, it's amazing. It's amazing. So we talked
about Irene Sheriff, and so obviously she's an inspiration. You
said you had so many of her you have all
of her books. So who else has inspired you and
how did you get into this industry?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
For me, my first inspiration was Tony Walton, who designed
Mary Poppins. And I watched Mary Poppins every day when
I was learning to talk, so I had a tear
rible British accent for the first year of my life,
like Dick vand style, and so I just remember loving
Mary Poppins and she was you know, I was too
young at the time to understand that it was so
much to do with that costume design. And then I
(09:13):
got to work for Tony for about half a year.
I helped archive his life's work, and just getting to
sit with him and hear all of his stories and
hear his stories from Mary Poppins was kind of one
of the greatest times of my life, and so he
was a huge inspiration to me and continues to be
to this day.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Wow, you got to meet your idol? Is it that amazing?
How did that come about?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
It was I got connected through my alumni of my college,
through Judith Dolan, who was my professor at UC San Diego,
and some of my fellow alumni connected me with Tony.
And my first Halloween costume that my mom made for
me was Mary Poppins when I was three, So I
got to, you know, at the end of my time
with him, I got to print out the picture of
(09:55):
my homemade Mary Poppins outfit and give it to him
as a and he he was the best. And so
I was so fortunate to get connected to him through them.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
That's amazing. How amazing did you? I mean, was this
something that you had ever dreamed might ever happen in
your life?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Absolutely not. I couldn't believe it. And then a couple
of years later, Tony was directing some shows in the
Hamptons and so he asked me to be his costume designer.
So I got to design costumes for Tony and Julie Andrews,
his ex wife and best friend came to see our
show and said, I did a wonderful job, and I thought, well,
I can die now.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
How wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, what a charmed life. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Absolutely again, you're so young and it's just all a
young time and.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
It feels so fortunate.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, you haven't, but you also have worked with the
amazing Catherine Martin and Baz Luhmann and on The Great Gatsby,
which I love all.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That's my era.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Era for sure, and I you know, relate to everything
The Great gats Mey's my favorite favorite novel of all
time too, and so talk about that experience.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It was incredible and to have that be my first movie.
I still can't believe it all happened. I pinched myself.
I mean, it was an incredible experience. And then getting
to work for Catherine and Baz for many, many years.
I learned so much from them and I love them
so much. They're like family. And you know, I worked
really hard and I got connected to them through a
(11:32):
costume design contest that I ended up winning and I
won a trip to Australia, and long story short, got
to the chance to work for them for three weeks,
which turned into many, many years and the Great gats By.
So getting to be on set and that being on
set filming that first party scene was the moment I
knew I wanted to be a film costume designer for
the rest of my life. Just seeing all of those
(11:55):
clothes that we've been working on for months and months
dancing together, I was like crying behind my three D
glasses at Video Village. It was a very well like job.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Well, and she is, She's amazing. Katherine Martin is also
truly amazing. Well, let's talk about your design process then,
because you've also you've worked with Liza Minnelli and you
did Beyonce's costumes for the I Am Tour. Let's talk
about Beyonce and Liza Annelly.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I know, right, My very first job in New York
when I moved to New York after college, was at
a Broadway costume shop called Corelli's, which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore.
But I worked there full time for three years as
a tailor and as a first hand, you know, cutting
out all of the different pieces so we could make
all of these beautiful outfits. So Liza used our shop
(12:43):
as so we were her tailors and my favorite thing
we got to make for her is this Snickers commercial
I think from twenty eleven or twenty ten, and she
is like a diva commercial, like you turn into a
diva if you don't have if you're hungry, and she's
where this like sparkly sequined turquoise pants suit that I
(13:04):
helped make and that was really really really fun and that, yeah,
that was us. I I got to make that. And
then we got to make all of Beyonce's costumes for
her I Am Sasha Feirs tour and it was so cool.
A lot of them the tour was designed by Terry
mcglair and getting to alter a lot of his originals
(13:27):
for Beyonce that was what my team was tasked with.
So that was really fun to make them perfect for her.
And love was a lot of hand beating. I got
really good about hand beating and hand sequick sequening.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
What was it like working with her?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I unfortunately never got to meet her. She had a
fit model, so we fit everything because she was so
busy rehearsing her tour. I just felt proud that I
get to be I got to be a part of
that and got to have my hands on a huge
chunk of the clothes that she wore that whole tour.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, you've you've been really busy because you've got a
lot of films that you've been working on, and right
now you're working on something. Let's talk a little, Yeah,
So let's talk about what you've seem to work. And
I've noticed when I was doing my research a lot
with Chris Landon.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I love Chris chrislann It's amazing. We've done four moves together,
three that he directed and four that he wrote, and
it was just he's the best. I love Chris so much,
and he's so much fun to work for. And I
love horror. I'm a big horror person, and so we've
done some really fun horror comedies and straight horror together.
It's been a delight, and I hope we get to
(14:35):
work together again soon because he just sets such a fun, amazing,
respectful set.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That's nice because when you see that you're working with
somebody over and over again and you find that that
makes it. You know, there's a different way of communicating
with one another when you work together so much as
a shorthand in exact way you.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Can jump right into it and you don't have You're like,
we have the same aesthetic, we care about the same things.
We you know, he can give me a task and
I can go off and do it and bring it
back and we're always on the same page, which I love.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So let's talk about that. What is it like designing
for a horror film converses a narrative? You know, love story.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Let's say, right, well, there's a lot more multiples because
there's usually a lot of like blood and distressing and
dirt and all sorts of things happen in horror movies.
Plus there's a lot of stunts. So my number one
thing is safety, So I always design with safety in mind.
And if we're going to do some stunt where someone
goes through a plate glass window, I want to make
(15:42):
sure that their skin is covered as much as possible.
So if that affects the principal actors costume, that's fine.
I really just need to make sure people are safe.
So it's a lot of thinking about those logistics in
addition to what looks correct for the character. So there's
a lot more stunts and multiples and shopping in places
(16:02):
where you don't get one off. So you can't really
use vintage so much. You got to build things more.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I never thought about you. So you also have to
protect there when they're doing the stunts. You have to
put accustomed together that protects them and never even again
when we're watching these movies. That's why I love what
I do, because it's behind the scenes and we get
to know you take a little bit of a look
and peek inside all the scene the movie magic that
goes on behind the scenes. So that's interesting. I mean,
(16:33):
that wouldn't be something we would all think about exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Like all and depending on how long they wear it
in the movie and how many stages of destruction it
goes through. And also you need to get multiple sizes
because often the stunt actors are wearing harnesses or pads
or different things underneath as well, so you need it
to look correct, but they also have to wear all
this stuff underneath it so their body stays protected. So
really having a lot of multiples but also multiple and different.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Sizes interesting, very interesting, very interesting. So what's your design process?
We started on that I think a little bit. Yeah,
let's take a little deeper dive into what your process is.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
My favorite thing is that. My process is the same
no matter if I'm doing a horror movie or a
period drama. It's reading the script multiple times, taking my
script notes, and then doing research. If I'm doing a
horror movie, maybe I go rewatch some of my favorite
horror movies set in that era, or I go dig
into where the time and place. If I'm doing a
period say you know the Supremes, I dug into the
(17:37):
research going through family photos online. A lot of people
on Flicker have public albums, so I love using people's
because it's real people. I love yearbooks. Yearbooks are such
a great gold mine of photos and contemporary magazines and
also films of the time and just getting research wherever
you can. So no matter what the story is or
(17:58):
if it's contemporary or a period and you still just
have to do your research and gather as many images
and history that you can.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
No, you said you'd like horror films, which is not my.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Genre at all at all.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I don't like being scared. But besides horror films, do
you have a favorite genre that you do like working
on more than others? Perhaps? Or have it or is
it all of them?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I love everything. I think my goal is to do
a different movie in every genre in my career. But
if I have to pick something that is my favorite,
it's a movie musical. I love movie musicals. I'm a
big I moved to New York to do Broadway, to
do theater. I love musicals. So it's definitely a big
goal of mine to do a big period like mid
century movie musical. But I am a student of cinema.
(18:51):
I just love watching movies. I try to watch at
least a movie a day, even if I'm like, you know, working,
I just have it on the background. I just love movies.
Right now the nineties action vibe. At the moment, I'm
watching a lot of nineties action.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's funny how we do that. Yeah, let's start one genre.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You're like, oh, watch all of those movies. Exactly depends
on what mood I'm in or what I'm doing. It's like, oh,
I'm I'm working on this movie that's really heavy, so
I need to go have some fun.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
It sort of bounces out what's happening in my in
my personal life.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well, you all need balance. Yeah, we definitely balance. I
think that's why a lot of us, you know, during
the pandemic and to some of our stressful times that
are going on in our world.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
We want we want something light exactly, We want fun
and lovely.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, we don't want too much drama anymore. And at
the moment it depends though.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It's so, so, what are you working on now, because
it seems you're in a project right at the moment. Correct,
I am.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I'm currently in New Orleans. I can't say anything, unfortunately,
but I can say it is a spooky more on
the spooky side than say The Supreme. So I'm excited
about this one. I'm here through the end of the year,
and this is my third movie in New Orleans, so
I'm excited to be back.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Oh do you like New Orleans then? And you said
there's a hurricane coming there? Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yes, I am sheltering in place from a hurricane fan
scene and headed our way today.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Wow. Wow Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Luck like work remotely at home, so I.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, we definitely have to do that. So be careful,
be safe, be safe, be safe. I'm with you. I
love movie I love Broadway musicals. That's what I wanted
to do when I was a little girl. I wanted
to be, you know, the next Mary Martin or something.
That wouldn't be Peter Pan. But I've never grown up,
so I guess I have fulfilled.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
That wish at some level.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But yeah, I get to go fly.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I just love it so much. I'm a Tony voter
now I'm something that's kind of a dream for me.
So I get to go up to New York and
see every show this season, and I just love it
so much. I think that's another big goal of mine,
is to do a Broadway show at some point in
my life.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
I would love that, Yeah, I do. I love well, Yeah,
I love Broadway musicals myself. Do you have an all
time favorite Broadway musical that if they did a revival
that you would love to do the costumes for. Oh?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Such a good question, and it feels impossible to sort
of choose what a favorite might be. But I think
my favorite Contempt more contemporary musical is next to Normal.
I would love to do that show. It's more of
a smaller scale, so it's not what you think of
like a typical big costume movie, but I think it's
just such a brilliant And there's also this show I
(21:42):
love called fun Home that I'm hoping that they make
a movie of at some point because I love that
Broadway show so much and I think it would be
an amazing movie.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I don't know either one of those.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
They're wonderful, They're really really great.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yes, so you're not looking at any of the old
nineteen forties.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Oh, I love those too. I think Oklahoma is my favorite,
and I love the recent revival that I had a close,
dear friend Will brill in the show, and so it
was fun to see him and one of my favorite musicals.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, those the costumes from that era, from the forties
and the fifties. You Carousel incredible, you know, and of
course West Side Story, which you know I'm interviewing George
Shakiraz next week. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
It's just so brilliant. I recently listened to that whole
album driving back from New York and it's just a
perfect musical. It's just perfect. It's incredible and I can
listen to it and repeat for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
You know, impossible to pick a favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
They're all so good, I know, I know, I know,
it's you know, character driven, it's just the it's and
the costumes in that are Dunning. Yeah, really wonderful in
that film too. Wow, I really well, this is you gave.
It's a nice peak inside of what it's like to
be a costume designer. And now when we watch the movies,
(23:06):
especially if you go, I mean, I hope you all
do search out the Supremes at Earl's all you can
eat because it's a lovely, lovely movie. It's heartwarming and
it's touching and yeah, it's just a wonderful movie. But
the costumes are absolutely amazing in that movie. Thank you
so As I said, it's streaming on Hulu right now,
so you can tune in and see Whitney's costumes design
(23:29):
in that film. So thank you so much, Whitney. I
look forward to having you back on the show. You've
got such a fashion eating career, and I look forward
to talking to you further about other movies and when
you go to Broadway.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Same. Thank you so much for having me. It's such
a delight.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
To all my wonderful loyal listeners. Your love of film
allows me to do what I do. If you want
to support me, the best way to do that is
to hit the subscribe button on the iHeart Podcast Network.
Apple Podcast Google Podcasts, Spotify or whereever you listen to
your favorite podcast and of course on YouTube. Subscribing matters.
(24:06):
If you are feeling really compelled, I want to hear
from you. Have a burning question, comment or review, Drop
me an email at the Jamprice Show dot com. Thank
you for listening The Jamprice
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Show All About Movies.
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